This talk was given as a part of the series "Enhancing Mindfulness Skills: A Seven-Week Series Dedicated to Cultivating Transformative Insight." This talk focuses on "Four Elements." It is a traditional practice of mindfulness of the body. In ancient India, the materiality of the body was thought to be composed of four elements—earth, fire, wind and water. These four elements, in turn, have twelve characteristics—(earth) heaviness and lightness, hardness and softness, roughness and smoothness; (fire) heat and coolness; (wind) pushing and supporting; (water) fluidity and cohesion. All of these characteristics can be known with our mind and in our body. Discerning the characteristics of material elements will lead to a profound contemplation of impermanence and death. Seeing the impermanence of the body, we know we cannot control it. The body is not-self, it is not possessable, not I, and not eternally me. Understanding the impermanence of material elements and this body composed of elements, we learn to let go. This talk concludes with a guided meditation of body scans, with emphasis on the four elements and their respective characteristics.

Meeting pain with mindfulness is a very skilful way of understanding the true nature of unpleasant physical sensation.

Guided Meditation on the five hindrances; sense desires, ill-will, restlessness and worry, sloth and torpor and doubt

The guided meditation ends at 16:45 with silence until the dharma talk begins at 34:28.

First inclination is towards that which is for one’s well-being. Attention settles on the body and breathing. Then make a practice of disconnecting and unplugging, not getting interested in other stuff that comes through. Keep asking, what’s appropriate and helpful now?

Meditation offers the opportunity to encourage the body to open into a more steady state of pleasure than is normally attainable through sense contact. This internal happiness has to do with the body’s subtle energy. Guidance is given to sense the subtle body and experience this internal happiness.

A few words on this quality of mind, a poem and a guided meditation